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World Business Report: Hong Kong protests damage the city's economy

03/10/2014

Hong Kong protests damage the city's economy

BBC World Service - World Business Report, Hong Kong protests damage the city's economy

Protests in Hong Kong damage the region's economy and the boss of Uber defends the firm

Protests in Hong Kong threaten to damage the region's economy and the co-founder of Uber defends the firm against complaints from taxi drivers.

Fewer people have been protesting in Hong Kong on Friday as a two-day holiday ended and many people went back to work. But there are warnings the demonstrations - particularly if violence continues - will harm Hong Kong's economy, and could threaten its status as a key financial centre. We hear the analysis of Gareth Leather, an Asia specialist, at Capital Economics. Over recent months various European cities have been brought to a standstill by protests of a different kind. Taxi drivers have been blocking streets because they are unhappy about a new rival, Uber. It allows users to book journeys, often in private cars, on an app on their smartphone. Cabbies say the firm breaks rules, and many have tried to challenge it in the courts. We hear from the co-founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick, who gives us his view of the company's unpopularity among taxi drivers. If you like cars, Paris is a pretty good place to be right now. Not for driving -- the traffic is terrible there any time of the year. There is a festival for petrolheads, at the Paris Motor Show. More than 270 companies from 20 countries are showing off their latest vehicles. Our reporter Theo Leggett is there and he has been finding out that some of the models on show are rather more exotic than others.

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